Is your birthday in the cancer danger zone? Scientists find people born in 30-year window are at highest risk of disease
PEOPLE born within a 30-year window are at higher risk of developing up to 17 different cancers, scientists say.
Researchers said younger generations are at higher risk of developing over a dozen different forms of the disease than those who came before them.
Lead by experts at the American Cancer Society, the study analysed tens of millions of diagnoses for 34 different types cancer.
It found that people in Generation X – born between 1965 to 1985 – and millennials – from 1986 to 1995 – were at higher risk of developing 17 forms of the disease compared to their predecessors, known as the Baby Boomer generation.
People born in this 30-year window were more likely to be diagnosed with breast, pancreatic and liver cancers, among others.
Dr Hyuna Sung, lead author and senior principal scientist of surveillance and health equity science at the American Cancer Society (ACS), said: “These findings add to growing evidence of increased cancer risk in post-Baby Boomer generations, expanding on previous findings of early-onset colorectal cancer and a few obesity-associated cancers to encompass a broader range of cancer types.”
Though obesity could be to blame, experts are not yet sure what is causing this generational surge in cancer risk.
“Birth cohorts, groups of people classified by their birth year, share unique social, economic, political, and climate environments, which affect their exposure to cancer risk factors during their crucial developmental years,” Dr Sung said.
“Although we have identified cancer trends associated with birth years, we don’t yet have a clear explanation for why these rates are rising.”
It comes after analysis by Cancer Research UK found that cancer cases are rising faster in under-50s than any other age group, partly fuelled by unhealthy living.
ACS researchers obtained the data of 23,654,000 patients diagnosed with 34 types of cancer between 2000 and 2019.
They also as well as mortality data from 7,348,137 patients who died of from 25 types of cancer.
Patients were were aged between 25 and 84 years old.
The patients were then divided into cohorts based on their birth years, from 1920 to 1990.
Gen X and millennials were up to three times more likely to develop several forms of cancer compared to Boomers.
Those 17 cancers included:
- Gastric cardia – a type of stomach cancer
- Cancer of the small bowel (or small intestine)
- Oestrogen receptor-positive breast cancer
- Ovarian cancer
- Liver and intrahepatic bile duct cancer – in women
- Non-HPV-associated mouth and pharyngeal cancer – in women
- Anal cancer
- Bowel and rectal cancer
- Uterine corpus cancer
- Gallbladder and other bile duct cancers
- Kidney cancer and cancer of the renal pelvis
- Pancreatic cancer
- Myeloma
- Non-cardia gastric cancer – a type of stomach cancer
- Testicular cancer
- Leukaemia
- Kaposi sarcoma, which affects the lining of blood vessels and lymph vessels, in men
The researchers found that the incidence rates increased with each successive cohort born since about 1920 for eight of 34 cancers.
The rate was about two to three times higher for people in 1990 than those born in 1955 for pancreatic, kidney and small intestinal cancers in both men and women and for liver cancer in women.
Reg flags of cancer you must look for and act upon
THERE are more than 200 types of cancer, each with its own set of symptoms.
A cough lasting three weeks or more is a key sign of lung cancer – the most common cancer in the UK.
Changes to bowel habits lasting more than three weeks, such as diarrhoea, constipation, blood when you poo, or needing to go more often, are signs of bowel cancer, the second most common form of the disease.
There are also common symptoms that can be “red flags” of many forms of cancer, and should always be checked.
They include:
- Weight loss for no obvious reason.
- Pain that is persistent and unexplained, whether it be dull and consistent, or sharp and brief.
- Any lumps, bumps or swellings, such as in the neck, armpit, stomach, groin, chest, breast or testicle.
- Fatigue that makes you feel tired all the time and generally lacking in energy.
- Night sweats that are very heavy or a fever that can’t be explained.
- Changes to the skin, such as puckering on the breast, moles that have changed, very itchy or yellow skin.
- Unexplained bleeding from the bottom or vagina, or blood in urine, semen, stool, vomit or when coughing.
After declining in older generations, nine cancer types – including breast cancer, uterine cancer, bowel cancer, non-cardia gastric cancer, gallbladder cancer, ovarian cancer, testicular cancer, anal cancer and Kaposi sarcoma – saw a surge among younger generations.
The researchers stated that among adults ages 25 to 49, “the most rapid increases in incidence rates” were seen with pancreatic, small intestine, and kidney and pelvis cancers.
Uterine cancer also saw a 169 per cent surge in incidence rate in people born in the 1990s, as opposed to those born in the 1950s
Mortality rates also increased among younger patients for liver, uterine, gallbladder, testicular, and bowel cancers.
Dr Ahmedin Jemal, senior vice president, surveillance and health equity science at the American Cancer Society, said: “The increase in cancer rates among this younger group of people indicate generational shifts in cancer risk and often serve as an early indicator of future cancer burden in the country.
“Without effective population-level interventions, and as the elevated risk in younger generations is carried over as individuals age, an overall increase in cancer burden could occur in the future, halting or reversing decades of progress against the disease.”
Dr Jemal added: “The data highlights the critical need to identify and address underlying risk factors in Gen X and Millennial populations to inform prevention strategies.”
The study – published in The Lancet Public Health – did contain some good news.
Some cancers – like those related to smoking, such as lung cancer, and HPV infections, such as cervical cancer – appeared not be rising.
In fact, the the study suggested that they might even be declining.